Best Surface for Painting
So far I haven't done any processing and painting of prints.
I have a project with reasonably large flat areas that will be printed in ABS. Visible faces can be printed as the bottom layer.
I have smooth and textured sheets but not certain I can use the textured for ABS.
Do you have a recommendation as to which sheet to use or which infill pattern to minimise sanding and filling please?
Thanks
RE: Best Surface for Painting
I wish you luck - I'm not up to trying anything as exotic as ABS yet. If you perhaps titled your post as "what's the best sheet for printing with ABS" you'd get more input. I like painting successful prints, so I stopped by for that.
RE: Best Surface for Painting
@dan-rogers
Thanks, what infill do you find easiest to sand and paint?
I'd like to limit my experimentation 🙂
RE: Best Surface for Painting
It depends what sort of finish you want.
Easiest is to paint with a thick enamel or similar that will fill the surface for you using brushes.
Or spray with several coats of primer, sanding in between before the topcoat.
If you want to preserve the texture, spraying thin primer then the paint will keep most of it.
Don't forget that ABS can be vapour smoothed, leave a good while for the solvent to clear if you prepare this way.
And I have seen PLA gilded with gilding wax; you could go further and try traditional gilding but you would need primer to help the gesso to stick.
Most of the stuff I've paintd has been PLA using Humbrol enamels. It sicks well without primer.
Hth, Cheerio,
RE: Best Surface for Painting
Thanks for the tips.
I did a bit of experimenting with vapour smoothing with mixed results. I left one part in too long and it was really soft for a few days afterwards, once the was surface touchable it could have been draped over a form to give it a light bend. Generally I thought they looked so slick/smooth that even with an adhesion promotor it would need a key with a 500 scotchbrite.
I'm going to be adding details to an existing plastic item so I think I'll stick to a combination of sanding and filler primer/primer before paint. I've got some Duplicolor anodised finish paint which is a base silver spray followed by a colour, looks good in videos but only time will tell. I could print it in 1 piece but I've split it up into parts to aid processing as there are flat areas which would be difficult to get to if one lump.
RE: Best Surface for Painting
Infill does not matter to me as long as you go light on the sanding.
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Chuck H
3D Printer Review Blog